1. Field of Invention
The present invention provides improvement on and to the highly humid air producing apparatus, which is designed to improve the fuel economy for boilers or automotive vehicles' internal combustion engines such as gasoline engines, diesel engines, and the like, and to minimize or substantially reduce the amounts of the produced harmful exhaust gases from those boilers or engines which may contain NO.sub.x, CO, hydrocarbon, black smokes, and/or the like.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There is a prior similar apparatus that provides for improving the fuel economy for the boilers or the internal combustion engines like gasoline-powered or diesel-powered engines, and for reducing the amounts of the harmful exhaust gases that may contain NO.sub.x, CO, hydrocarbon, and/or black smokes, wherein those objectives may be achieved by producing the "highly humid air" to be delivered into the suction pipe (through which a fuel-and-air mixture is also delivered into the internal combustion chamber).
Although the "highly humid air" may be obtained in some or other ways, there are very few apparatuses and/or methods that are capable of providing the "highly humid air" which is effective enough to satisfy the practical requirements. One of the inventors of the current application, named Takashi Ogura, filed the prior patent application for his own invention in the United States of America and Japan. That prior application disclosed the apparatus that was capable of providing such effective "highly humid air".
The U.S. application was patented as Pat. No. 4,479,907 on Oct. 30, 1984, and the corresponding Japanese application No. 57-143865 as filed on Aug. 19, 1982 is still examined and is now published as No. 59-34470 on Feb. 24, 1984. Both applications disclose the identical invention on which the invention in the current application as now filed is based.
To help understand the fundamental concept of that prior basic invention, some essential components of the apparatus as disclosed in the above-mentioned prior Japanese application are listed and described briefly. The apparatus includes a container that holds water, a narrow water vaporizer pipe 4 having a narrow water inlet located in the water in the container (which corresponds to the first narrow pipe 1 as referred to hereinafter in the current specification) which draws water from the water inlet by suction under reduced pressure and produces vaporized water, a narrow air pipe 14 (which corresponds to the second narrow pipe 2 as referred to hereinafter in the current specification) having an air inlet which admits air in the atmosphere, a three-way meeting point 5 (which corresponds to the meeting point 5 as referred to hereinafter in the current specification) including two inlet branches and one outlet branch extending therefrom like the reversed Y shape, where the vaporized water flow from the vaporizer pipe 4 and the air flow from the air pipe 14 through the respective inlet branches meet together, going upwardly through the outlet branch, and a narrow suction pipe (which corresponds to the third narrow pipe 3 as referred to hereinafter in the current specification) which forces the mixture of the vaporized water and air flows to rise and go out of the suction pipe through its outlet nozzle.
One of the important features of the basic invention is the provision of the very narrow suction nozzle 3 (which corresponds to the water inlet as referred to hereinafter in the current specification) on the water vaporizer pipe. It has the bore diameter of as small as 0.3 mm, so that when a reduced pressure of 200 to 700 mmHg., which is developed within the running engine room, is introduced into the water vaporizer pipe, it can draw water from the container through its suction nozzle 3. Thus, the vaporized water can be produced readily.
The second feature is the particular angle at which the vaporized water from the vaporized pipe and the air flow from the air pipe are to meet together and strike against each other at the three-way meeting point. According to the basic invention, the angle, which corresponds to the angle .alpha. as referred to hereinafter in the current specification, is specified as an acute angle. Otherwise, after the two flows meet together into a single flow, its rate would become slower, which would cause a non-uniform mixture, or would prevent relatively large water lumps or clusters from being vaporized into smaller lumps or particles. This would cancel the effect of the basic invention on the improved fuel economy and the reduction in the amount of the produced harmful exhaust gases.
The third feature is that there is no excessive space at the three-way point, which would otherwise cause a further reduction in the pressure and flow rate. This feature allows the two flows to meet together and strike against each other at the three-way meeting point, with their respective sustained speeds, so that the relatively large water lumps or clusters can be dissolved into smaller lumps or particles. In this way, the objectives of the basic invention can be attained.
In this respect, there is another prior-art disclosure that is provided in the Japanese patent publication No. 52-28179, as cited by the Examiner in Japan during the prosecution of the basic invention now being discussed. The publication discloses an alternative, but quite different, meeting point shown in FIG. 3 therein, which provides an excessive space in which a differential pressure chamber 18 is located. This construction would adversely affect both the vaporized water flow from the vaporizer pipe and the air flow from the air pipe, in such a manner that the two flows would have the further reduced pressure and speed, respectively, at the meeting point. As a result, the vaporized water flow would receive the weaker striking force from the air flow. This would affect the effects of improving the fuel economy and of reducing the produced harmful exhaust gases.
The fourth feature is that the narrow suction pipe is disposed substantially vertically. In the construction as disclosed in the above Japanese patent publication No. 52-28179, however, the narrow bore 7, which corresponds to the narrow suction pipe, is so inclined that it is directed downwardly from its horizontal position. The result is that the mixture of the air and vaporized water flows formed at the meeting point would be separated into the water flow that travels along the inside wall by its own weight, and the air flow that contains no or little vaporized water. This would also affect the effects of improving the fuel economy and of reducing the produced harmful exhaust gases.